Honey, bee products, beeswax, environment pollution https://unilib.phaidrabg.rs/o:288 doi:10.1007/s12011-020-02321-6 Ćirić, Jelena Spirić, Danka Baltić, Tatjana Branković-Lazić, Ivana Trbović, Dejana Parunović, Nenad Petronijević, Radivoj Djordjević, Vesna eng Honey bees and their products as indicators of environmental element deposition Springer nature 2021 info:eu-repo/semantics/article application/pdf 1574720 bytes The aim of this study was to evaluate element (sodium, magnesium, potassium, calcium, chromium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, copper, zinc, arsenic, cadmium, and lead) deposition in honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) (worker bees, drone bees, and bee broods) and their products (wax and multifloral honey) in the central and north parts of Serbia using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The study was carried out during the spring and summer seasons when the honeybees were active (2019). Fifty-four colonies of honey bees from different apiaries (located in Rudnik, Lazarevac, and Ležimir) were used in this study. Significant differences in element concentrations were found among locations (P < 0.05). The highest deposition of elements (sodium, calcium, manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, zinc, arsenic, and cadmium) was found in worker bees. The most commonly detected elements in wax were chromium and lead. Mg had a significant (P < 0.01) correlation with K, Fe, Cu, and As. This study shows that honey bees (worker bees, drone bees, and bee broods) could be more useful as bioindicators of environmental element deposition (toxic and non-toxic) than multifloral honey. Also, this study shows that Serbian multifloral honey meets safety criteria concerning the concentrations of toxic elements. Biological Trace Element Research 199 All rights reserved